Gaia Dreams (Gaiaverse Book 1) (26 page)

Harmony smiled, delighted at that idea of
herself, but then shook her head. "No, I'm definitely no angel, but thanks for
the image. I'm Harmony Gold. What are you doing out here in the middle of the
street?"

The young man straightened up to his full
height, almost six feet. Yes, Harmony thought, a teenager perhaps, not full
grown yet.

"Harmony?" he said. "That sounds like an angel
name to me. I came out here 'cause I didn't know what to do...where to
go...after the dream...." He didn't notice Harmony was startled at his fumbling
words, "and then you just appeared out of nowhere...looking like an angel so I
thought...maybe now it was time for me to go, you know? And I'd get answers
about...about the dreams..." his voice trailed off into the foggy night.

"You say you had a dream? Was it a totally
freak-you-out, scare you to death dream?" Harmony asked.

"Yeah, you could say that--multiplied by ten!"
said the teenager. Then he noticed her tone of voice. "Wait a minute--do you
know what it means?"

"Not exactly, but I was on my way to see some
people who do. You might as well come with me. Do we need to get permission
from your parents or something? I don't want to get in trouble for something
else, so soon after the fireworks episode," Harmony said, opening the door to
her car.

"No, no parents...I'm kind of on my own. I've
been living in that abandoned house over there for the past couple weeks. I was
just passing through here...didn't really know where to go. Hey, is it okay if
we bring my dog? She's still kind of a puppy, not too big."

Harmony saw he was picking up a whimpering
ragamuffin of a dog who was in dire need of a bath. No telling what breed she
was and clearly in need of food as much as the boy.

"Sure," she said. "The more the merrier. These
folks we're going to see, John and Jessica, have a dog so they won't mind."
Starting the car and heading down the road, she looked over at the young man
and asked, "What's your name?"

"Max, Max Osborne" he promptly replied and then
asked curiously, "What was the fireworks episode?"

"Ahhh, we might just have time for that story,"
and proceeded to regale Max with the lighter points of the story as they sped
down the winding country road into the deepening night.

Chicot, Arkansas

Lisanne leaned against the headboard of the bed
with pillows piled behind her. Andy sat with a blanket around his shoulders,
cross-legged at the foot of the bed. Merlin and Waldo were on the bed between
them.

"So basically what we have here is a shared
dream that we all four had. The same main focus, but each of us had a few
little details that the other ones didn't, and when we put all the versions
together, we get a more complete picture of what will happen when the
Mississippi River floods." Andy summed up their discussions of the past half
hour.

Lisanne shook her head. "But I still think we
are missing something. Or rather not seeing it from the right perspective yet.
Everything we got was about the Upper Basin--the upper part of the Mississippi.
Now Merlin has said that he knows for a fact the entire thing is going to
flood, so the Lower Basin will be involved as well. But all of our dreams were
focused up here, right around Missouri specifically. Why?"

Andy rubbed his eyes tiredly and thought for a
while, and then a thought came to him. "Wait," he said excitedly. "Where are we
heading? Where are we supposed to end up? Maybe our route will take us through
regions that are close to areas that will flood."

The two humans looked questioningly at the cat
who tapped on the computer keyboard.

CAPE FAIR MISSOURI

"Ah ha!" Andy said triumphantly. "Missouri!"

Lisanne frowned at him and said, "Just hold on a
minute! Let me get the map out. Here. Where the heck is Cape Fair--it's small.
Look! It's nowhere near the river--it's all the way over in the southwestern
corner, so that still doesn't answer the question," she finished, sending Andy
a smug look.

"You know," he said, glowering at her, "you can
be a real pill."

"A 'pill?' Is that the best you can do? What
decade are you living in?" she retorted.

"Okay!" he replied. "I was trying to be a
gentleman. But I can see that you are such a--"

He was cut off by Waldo's bark.

Merlin had typed out a message on the screen.

ENOUGH CHILDREN

Lisanne and Andy glanced guiltily at each other,
and then continued reading.

DETOUR

HEAD TOWARD ST LOUIS

HELP RESCUE

SLEEP NOW

LONG DAY TOMRW

"Rescue who?" Lisanne began.

"Why St. Louis?" Andy asked at the same time.

Merlin refused to answer, walking away. Humans!
They'd be the death of him yet, he thought as he curled up to sleep.

Lisanne and Andy sat back against the bed's
headboard. Quite suddenly, he realized she was clad only in a black teddy,
which looked scrumptious on her, by the way, and how had he missed noticing
that she had the most perfect body? Probably all that black clothing covering
her up.

Lisanne shivered as something in the air
changed, and then looked to Andy. The blanket had fallen away from his broad
shoulders and he was only wearing cotton pajama bottoms. His chest was smooth
and finely-muscled. Long legs stretched out in front of him, and Lisanne
wondered how she'd escaped noticing until now just how damn good-looking he
was. That is in a clean-cut, all-American way that she never went for.

Andy cleared his throat. "Uh, so, I guess we
should..." He stopped.

"We should go to bed. That's what we should do,"
Lisanne started. Then she halted as he turned a surprised face toward her.

"To sleep! We should go to sleep! That's what
Merlin said, and that's what I'm doing!" she said defensively.

Andy grinned. Hmm, he thought. So she was aware
of the tension between them. And she was nervous about it. He grinned more
broadly.

"What? What are you looking at?"

Andy got up from the bed, and then leaned over
to her. "You. I'm looking at you."

She blushed. He hadn't thought it possible.

"But Merlin's right. We have a long day ahead--and
plenty of time--later."

"Time later..." she began. Then she asked
suspiciously, "For what?"

He kissed her forehead and walked out of her
room into his, smiling widely.

"Men!" she exclaimed to Merlin. "You're all
alike!" But she had a hard time going to sleep, what with visions of Andy
barely clothed running through her head. As she finally dozed off, she thought
groggily, "I'm not getting involved, it's the end of the world, no time to get
involved, or maybe that's the perfect time to get involved."

"People!" Merlin thought wearily. "They're all
alike!"

Chicago, Illinois

"I would say it's impossible, except that we
have the evidence right in front of us," Nathan said, striving for calmness in
his voice he didn't feel.

Alex pressed her fingers against her temples as
if to keep her brain inside her skull. "Ooh, my head hurts! I know, I know.
Even when I suggested we write them down, I didn't really think the dreams
would match."

"There are details that are different," Nathan
put forth, as if this would somehow negate the fact that they'd both had
essentially the same dream.

Alex grimaced and said, "You know that doesn't
matter. And if you put the two dreams together, put those details together,
they seem to fill in any blank spots in both our dreams and we get a more
complete picture." Then she had a thought. "Hey, have you ever before
demonstrated any psychic ability?"

"What?" Nathan replied, and then smiled. "No,
Alex, I've never shown any psychic abilities. Have you?"

"No, more's the pity."

He laughed. "Look at us. Here we are sitting on
what could be the biggest discovery since--well, since I don't know what! We
don't even know what it is, what it all means, and we're all doom and gloom
about it!"

Alex speared him with a glance and said, "Well,
duh, Nathan. So far all we know and all we have predictions for are about
multitudes of people dying! If that doesn't call for doom and gloom I don't
know what does! Just who's going to be alive to hear about our big
discovery--that is, if we ever figure out exactly what our big discovery is?"
With that, she stomped off to the bathroom and slammed the door.

Nathan collapsed onto the couch and sat there
thinking about what she'd said. On one level he knew she was right. But there
was more to this--whatever this was. On a deep level within himself, he knew
that hope was not lost. Of course, it might be hard to sell that idea to Alex.
He thought again about his astonishment at reading the last line of Alex's
dream. She had written, 'Must go to St. Louis, Missouri' and she had no idea
why that thought had been in her dream. They had decided it was their next lead
so they were leaving tomorrow to head for Missouri. And after the dream
tonight, he realized suddenly they might not have much time before the flooding
made the journey a difficult one.

Louisville, Kentucky

Janine walked among the horses in a daze, filled
with an energy that felt otherworldly. "Am I dreaming?" she said softly.

The horse she was standing closest to shook his
head. "No, I'm not, am I?". She found that if she stood directly beside, or in
front of, a horse and either touched it, or looked into its eyes, she was able
to sense things. It was scary at first, and she backed away. But the horses
that had always been her friends were her safe haven. In a few minutes she
tried it again, and then again. Soon she was gleefully going from one horse to
the next, opening stall doors, getting to know all her friends in a way she'd
never imagined was possible.

The knowledge at first was small, knowing which
was hungry, which one was itchy on his right flank--but then--whoosh! The waves
of information came at greater speeds until she was literally spinning and
finally had to say, "Whoa! Slow down, slow down, whoa," and of course they did,
responding as always to her voice. As the night deepened, she came to an
understanding. They knew about the tornadoes that killed Sherry and the other
people in town. And they said more troubles were coming. This place wasn't safe
anymore. Not many places would be. But there was one place they might be able
to get to, maybe, if they left now, tonight. It was risky and they might not
make it. But the horses were willing to try, and they wanted Janine to go with
them.

They were out in the exercise ring now and she
was standing in the center. She turned in a circle, arms outstretched to them
all. "You are all I have left. Of course I'll come with you. Thank you for this
honor," she said in a voice on the edge of tears.

There was a general nodding of horses' heads and
soft neighs. Janine ran to get a bedroll and gather up what clothes she had
with her in a pack. Then she flew through the rest of the stables, unlocking
stall doors for any to join them that would. Within minutes she was up on the
back of a chestnut stallion, no bit in his mouth, not after what she knew now,
just a loose leather bridle to give her something to hang on to. A blanket on
his back, with her pack and bedroll tied on, no saddle or stirrups--she didn't
need them now. And they were off--a thundering of hooves passing through city
streets and onward to the countryside, following their inner knowledge of how
to get to the safe haven. Janine looked up and saw stars flying by in the
velvety dark. She whispered, "Life sucks, then you die, and then something
totally amazing happens. Goodbye, Sherry."

Cape Fair, Missouri

"Ooh, they're here!" cried Samantha, jumping off
the couch and running to the door.

"They?" said John, looking at Jessica and Mrs.
Philpott.

"Don't ask me," said Mrs. Philpott.

Jessica just shrugged as Sam opened the door.
Harmony walked in and right behind her came an African-American man--no, John
realized, a young man, more like a teenager. At that point, John blurted out, "The
teenager! You found him!"

Harmony looked startled, but said calmly, "Well,
yes, I did indeed find him."

Samantha was shutting the door when she called
out, "And he has a dog, a puppy!"

Jessica, who had been standing, sank into a
chair saying, "I don't believe it. I just don't believe it! A dog with him too!"

Suddenly everyone was talking at once. Harry and
the puppy were exchanging introductions dog style. Harmony was explaining to
Jessica how she found Max. Max was talking shyly to Sam and Mrs. Philpott, with
Sam declaring every couple of minutes that she wanted her skin to be the color
of Max's skin because it was "too beautiful" when finally John picked up a
glass and clanged a spoon against it.

"Hold it, everybody!" he said loudly. All
talking ceased--then Samantha started giggling and everyone started laughing.

"Okay, okay," John said, "I know we have a lot
to talk about, but how about we get everyone something to drink or eat and give
our newcomers a chair to sit on and then let each person tell their story so we
can all hear it."

With nods of agreement from all, Jessica stood
up and announced that she had roasted turkey for sandwiches with fresh lettuce
and homemade bread, brownies, milk, coffee, or cranapple juice, or some cheese
and crackers for munching. Even though it was by now close to three in the
morning, everyone headed to the kitchen for food and drink. Plates and glasses
filled, and with everyone situated comfortably on one of the two couches or the
several chairs, Mrs. Philpott looked around the room and noticed how the
animals were distributed. Each animal was sitting directly in front of or next
to the person they were bonded with. Max's dog looked ready to sleep after
finishing a bowl of Harry's dog food. Mrs. Philpott thought both Max and his
dog could use some extra attention as she watched the teenager finishing his
second turkey sandwich.